And welcome to posting 101, your guide to good posting etiquette. My name is Mr. Davisherm and I'll be your teacher for this class.

Posting on an Internet forum is not a right. It's a privilege. We try to keep things running smoothly, but occasionally things get a little hairy. Generally I like to stick to the background, posting in the threads that catch my eye and keeping my acts as moderator to a minimum, but recent events and posting trends have brought forth a need for us to remind everybody of the rules. Please everybody, let's try to abide by these.

From the registration page:

"While the administrators and moderators of this forum will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators or webmaster (except for posts by these people) and hence will not be held liable.

You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-oriented or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned (and your service provider being informed). The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that the webmaster, administrator and moderators of this forum have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should they see fit."

Now that we're all up to date on what we agreed to when we signed up, let's see if we understand what this means.

Pretty much, just use common sense. If you think that your 10 year old sister, cousin, nephew, whatever shouldn't be reading something, then maybe you shouldn't post it on this forum. While to my knowledge, we don't have any 10 year old members, we do have our share of young people and we don't actually know how old the guests to the board are. We could have very young children reading, and as I've said before, it's our responsibility as Elders, both in age, and in the Craft to set a good example for them.

Now, in regard to some more recent activity, I don't like looking like the bad guy, but wow, some people can be a little rude. It's not nice, it's not polite, and sometimes it seems just plain mean. We're rather like a family here on this forum, and I like that idea. Unfortunately, like a family, sometimes we argue. Let's try to keep it civil. Disagreeing is one thing, but getting into spats over the Internet is just kind of silly. And being spiteful really isn't something that we, as a group try to advocate.

Now, for the Posting Etiquette; just some helpful hints to keep the forums tidy and understandable.

Naming and Placing your Posts: When you make a new thread, or topic for discussion, try to name it something that sums up your topic. If you're discussing a new candle making technique, let us know in the topic name. "Hey look what I learned!" isn't really informative and could really be applied to anything, but "I just found a new way to make Candles!" lets us know what the subject matter is right away. If you need help with something, ask, "Can anybody help me with ______" instead of just "Help Needed"

It also helps if you put the topic in the right forum. Talking about the benefits of Crystal Healing is all well and good, but if you post it in the Humor section, and it's not meant to make people laugh, we're going to wonder what was on your mind and move it to the Magic and Energy Use section.

Posting Articles: While we love the fact that you want to share the information you've found, we don't need the whole thing. I'm guilty of this one, myself. It takes up so much room. All we really need is a little description of what's in the article and the link to it. This keeps things tidy and this way, we donít have to worry about our members getting in trouble for using other peopleís words without their permission.

Double and Triple Posts: While this isn't really breaking the rules, it clutters up the threads. If you have something to add to your post, don't reply right below it, please just use the edit button. That's what it's there for. This way, we keep everything all nice and tidy.

Getting off topic: I can't say much about this. I'm just as guilty as everybody else. We all do it. But we need to try to keep conversations on topic. It gets a little confusing when you're reading about the use of Rutabaga in protective charms and people start talking about their favorite song. That's why we have the Music and Poetry section.

And finally, if the Administrators or one of the moderators ask you to stop doing something, you need to stop doing it. We've been pretty lax in the past, and for the most part, everybody behaves so the Administrators and moderators didn't need to be heavy handed. And that was great, because nobody wants to have to yell at anybody else. But if need be, people who don't abide by the rules will be dealt with.